Elan Lohmann, News24 publisher, comments, “Online media is often regarded by marketers and traditional media executives as not yet on the map but our reach is continuing to grow in the local market. News24's achievement is a significant event for the entire industry. It shows that there are a mass of South Africans who require their news content online. More importantly perhaps, it shows that the local Internet market is coming of age as a viable mass communication medium.

“We believe that connectivity will continue to improve at an increasing rate in South Africa and that news websites will have the most to gain. Global giants like Facebook, Myspace, Google and Youtube may steal away local users to their services but nobody can do local news better than we can on home soil.”

Compelling content

Jannie Momberg, News24 editor, attributes the site's success to a strategy focused on breaking news and compelling content. “It has been our focus to ensure our readers are kept up-to-date with the fast-paced news cycles of the 21st century. News24's content is also available via mobile phone and on DStv channel 299, providing more South Africans with the opportunity to access news when they need it.”

“Furthermore, we have made the News24 experience more relevant to our users. MyNews24.com, where we publish stories written by our readers, has attracted over 80 000 users per month. This is a remarkable achievement when we consider that it was only launched in May this year and a clear indicator that South Africans are embracing the digital revolution of Web 2.0. The comments facilities that we have added has also stimulated fantastic activity and given a real voice to our users,” says Momberg.

Concludes Lohmann, “It is a privilege and a highlight of my career to be associated with such an Industry milestone and all credit goes to the dedicated News24 team.”

 

“Gone are the days that we can delude ourselves that South Africans are not active online. We now have 3.8 million people interacting in this arena. By just looking at the member list of the OPA and their traffic, it is evident that SA's online users trust the Internet to give them the latest news, business information, health and lifestyle information and a new way of sourcing employment opportunities. Simultaneously we see more companies realising the power of the online medium by the organic growth of the OPA member base,” continues Buckland.

So who exactly is online in SA?

• The latest Nielsen/Netratings show that currently 54% of all online users are male and 49% female.
  
• The average age of our online users are between 25 – 29
  
• 64% access the internet from their place of work
  
• Only 31% of all online users have internet access at home.
  
• Only 25% of all online users have had some form of higher education since leaving school
  
• 51% are English speaking, 28% are Afrikaans speaking and the balance speaks one of the many African dialects – Zulu being 6% and Xhosa 4%.
  
• 61% of online users have cellular phones with Internet access
  
• 61% are employed full time and work more than 30 hours a week
  
• 20% hold clerical or administrative positions, while only 18% hold managerial positions
  
• 47% of all online users are married
  
• 15% of online users are either from the financial, insurance or real estate industry
  
• 25% live in households that have four members in them
  
• 53% own their own homes and have bonds
  
• 17% have an annual household income of R400 000 or more, 15% preferred to not say what their income was and 10% earned less than R50 000 a year.
  
• 32% have satellite dishes
  
• 31% live in Johannesburg, 18% in Cape Town, 14% in Pretoria and 8% in Durban and only 1% lives outside of South Africa.

“Surely this insightful information on who is online would lead marketers to look beyond just having an online presence, and incorporate this research into their marketing plans and start talking directly to their consumers in a strategically planned and executed online manner?” asks Buckland.

TOP PUBLISHERS – LOCAL TRAFFIC ONLY – period April/May/June 2007

UNIQUE BROWSERS	PAGE IMPRESSIONS
	Publisher	Q2 UB AVE	Q2 PI AVE
	Market Aggregate	3 791 233	196 864 153
1	Media24	1 432 724	40 379 561
2	MWEB	838 501	28 071 131
3	Independent Online	809 117	16 694 691
4	Interface	629 294	30 165 423
5	Ananzi (Pty) Ltd	443 264	8 807 383
6	SuperSport Zone	291 988	6 219 574
7	CareerJunction	260 445	12 245 339
8	Johncom	243 999	4 111 000
9	iafrica.com	243 349	5 936 669
10	Mail & Guardian Online	195 722	2 062 882
11	bidorbuy (Pty) Ltd	187 626	7 024 972
12	Auto Trader	184 962	8 525 284
13	Yellow Pages South Africa	175 831	2 662 336
14	Junkmail	168 419	4 696 253
15	Private Property	160 105	5 710 228
16	Bizcommunity.com	129 332	2 175 859
17	Electronic Media Network	117 542	1 606 125
18	MultiChoice	103 180	1 017 351
19	Telkom SA	101 103	862 942
20	365 Digital Publishing	90 810	1 045 502
21	Moneyweb Holdings	89 325	1 497 006
22	5FM	83 022	1 676 513
23	SABCNews.com	80 899	1 067 769
24	ITWeb Limited	80 530	734 476
25	Creamer Media (Pty) Ltd	63 644	366 262
26	Ramsay Son & Parker	60 744	1 085 539
27	UCM	30 558	229 557
28	New Media Publishing	19 271	153 847
29	Funnel	15 150	83 129
30	Business in Africa	3 369	8 631

TOP PUBLISHERS – LOCAL & INTERNATIONAL – period April/May/June 2007

UNIQUE BROWSERS	PAGE IMPRESSIONS
Rank	Publisher	Q2 AVE	Q2 AVE
	Market Aggregate	8 124 022	106 357 017
1	Media24	2 924 673	50 844 995
2	Independent Online	2 105 151	22 669 880
3	MWEB	1 048 735	31 083 454
4	Interface	734 087	33 292 284
6	SuperSport Zone	550 295	10 233 969
5	Ananzi (Pty) Ltd	548 416	10 024 020
8	iafrica.com	526 497	7 562 202
7	Mail & Guardian Online	517 791	3 628 075
9	Johncom	452 225	5 702 163
10	bidorbuy (Pty) Ltd	362 954	7 694 695
11	CareerJunction	297 484	13 231 528
12	Moneyweb Holdings	242 980	2 108 536
13	Auto Trader	231 313	9 900 846
14	Electronic Media Network	199 060	2 796 664
18	Yellow Pages South Africa	197 073	2 920 233
16	Bizcommunity.com	185 571	2 384 329
15	Junk Mail	185 395	5 023 695
17	Private Property	182 220	6 288 631
19	365 Digital Publishing	150 586	1 851 144
21	SABCNews.com	137 355	1 418 053
20	Creamer Media (Pty) Ltd	133 732	558 535
23	MultiChoice	129 671	1 187 430
22	Telkom SA	116 751	942 137
24	ITWeb Limited	113 649	836 008
25	5FM	90 095	1 641 063
26	Ramsay Son & Parker	87 850	1 291 190
27	UCM	43 817	423 743
28	New Media Publishing	22 043	243 956
29	Funnel	16 851	118 026
30	Business in Africa	14 116	39 585

The OPA is a grouping of South Africa's most prominent online publishers, including Bizcommunity.com. Its aim is to promote the growth and profitability of the online publishing industry, by setting the highest standards and meeting the needs of marketing and advertising professionals. For more information, go to www.opa.org.za.